“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are” (I Corinthians 2:16)
Let’s begin by understanding the meaning of the word “temple.” It’s a place set apart for prayer, a place where God abides in a special way. Everywhere else may be secular and profane, but a temple is holy, because it is filled with the Holy Spirit. You go to a temple to find and worship God, and you come away from the temple; however, in a sense you never leave the temple, because you take the temple with you, or better stated, you are the temple. When you were baptized, you “put on Christ,” as we say. And when you partake of the Holy Communion, you take in Christ. And where Christ is, there is the Father and the Holy Spirit. More, the Spirit dwells in you ever since your Chrismation. All that happened when somebody loved you enough to bring you the greatest gift possible, the present that brought you into the presence of Christ. You cannot lose Him; you can only reject Him.
Because you are filled with divinity, “you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you.” You are a living temple. Read the responsibility of that awesome awareness. If you defile the temple which is yourself, what happens? How would you do that, and why? There are various ways to physically abuse your body. Our secular culture offers a myriad of opportunities to do harm to yourself. And each way destroys some faculty of your mind, and then corrupts your soul.
On the other hand, when you come to appreciate the gift God has given you in Christ, you will enjoy entering into the inner temple, for there only will you discover true peace. If you have no inner peace, you will do anything but listen to the sweet silence of your heart. You will search for any distraction that will set you free from your inner self: TV, cell phones, noise, parties, anybody who will enslave you and tell you it’s the only way to enjoy life. And of course you will do anything rather than to pray, because prayer will only remind you how far you are from the Lord of love.
If you wish to love God and the Holy Spirit dwelling in your inner temple, then you will find a way to pray all of the time. No matter what you are doing or where you are going, if you work at it and struggle with the distractions and temptations that pull you from your private temple, with dedication and intention you can succeed in uninterrupted prayer. Here is the way to do so as spelled out in St. John Cassian’s treatise, On Prayer:
You must remove all concern for worldly things. Money matters, empty chatter, meaningless banter, clowning and foolishness must go. Emotions like anger, grudges, gloominess, depression dealt with and eliminated. Then daydreaming, memories and plans for future events set aside. Conquest of imaginations, recollections of what you should have done and failed at or did do and regret are of no help. From the sanctuary of the heart nothing can remain that intrudes on the sanctity of pure prayer. Imitating the cherubim as we do halfway into the Divine Liturgy, we “lay aside all earthly cares.”
Is this a tall order? Certainly. Impossible? Not at all, because: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). Every monk and nun is dedicated to achieving this feat, knowing as they do that there is nothing in this world that can compare to finding and abiding in the inner temple where the Holy Trinity resides.